cyclocross on singletrack

Much has been said lately of riding mountain bike trails on bikes designed with racing through muddy grass and hopping over barriers in mind, but not carving a ribbon of hard-packed dirt and rocky ledges. The allure of beating yourself up on such terrain caught my attention too, so I tried it a few months ago.

Unfortunately, my Salsa Vaya was fitted with 42mm knobby Continental Speed Ride tires at the time and it did not take long before the rocky crust of central Texas claimed one inner tube. By that, I mean I was on the trail for less than 15 minutes before a rock killed my tube. I patched it and kept riding, but the experience was somehow stilted from that point forward. I became paranoid that another misstep was going to bring my fun to a grinding halt. I put roadie tires back on that bike after that and kept it on the pavement, leaving my mountain bike for those off-road adventures.

Vaya- great stable bike for long rides on road and gravel

After some more months on that bike, I decided that the Vaya was probably a terrific touring bike, but I was not touring anywhere loaded with camping gear; just zipping around the city and riding as much dirt and gravel as I could find along the way. After a lot of over-analyzing with spreadsheets, in-depth interviews with fellow riders (forums, that is), and the discovery and subsequent obsession over bikegeo.net, I decided to get a Soma Double Cross Disc.

Double Cross Disc- a subtly but noticeably different bike!

This frame would easily accept all the part from my previous build with little drama and featured angles and features I thought would make it better suited for road and trail riding. It does all those things well and Soma makes a great product. For a long time, it served primarily as a commuter and road bike with skinny slick tires, fenders, and sometimes a rear rack. Something in me still wanted to beat myself up on singletrack with it though, but the thought of pinch-flatting myself out of the fun was holding me back.

The impetus for finding a tubeless solution came while riding my mountain bike. I lost all pressure in my air sprung fork and even blew the seal off the fork during a ride. I guess I should have paid closer attention to that service interval schedule.

oops

I did not want to take up precious riding time rebuilding a fork, so I got a hold of some WTB Cross Boss tires. I picked these after hearing a lot of reports of how incredibly tight-fitting the WTB TCS bead tires are on Stan's rim. One rider I know spent several hours and shattered a tire lever or two trying to fit some WTB tires on he Stan's rims, so I knew they would likely be a sufficiently tight fit on my non-tubeless rims (DT Swiss x430). Sure enough, a layer or two of 1" Gorilla Tape, some Velocity tubeless valves, and some home-made latex sealant got these to grab the rim and not let go.

patented skull valve cap

these fit surpisingly well on my rims

just enough tread for singletrack, smooth enough for pavement

On my first ride on these, I could not help myself. I rode about 40 miles of (mostly) singletrack on the local urban trail system, complete with rocks, ledges, and loose gravel. Riding a bike like this on rugged terrain is certainly different! It is not for people with bad backs and poor bike handling skills. You have to pick your lines carefully. A mishandled ledge can buck your off the bike pretty easily. The tires don't grab the dirt like you are used to. Bumps that come faster than you can soak them up with your arms and legs, usually the job of a suspension fork, build up and force you back on the brakes. If the gnar gets too gnarly, you have to get off and walk, which is part of the cyclocross experience.

On the other hand, you can go much, much faster flat sections and non-technical climbs. I went for a second ride with two friends who were on rigid mountain bikes and I smoked them up a non-technical hill, only to realize at the top of the hill that I never bothered to shift out of my big (48 tooth) chainring! If your trail system includes sections of pavement between trail systems, the "boring" slogs feel like less of a drag and more of a go-fast interlude.

Will the 'cross bike replace my mountain bike? certainly not! Certain trails and types of dirty terrain are lots of fun on a bike with drop bars and skinny tires, but you have to know it's limits. There are parts of the trails that I ride that I would never ride on this bike, and this is one of them:

I did that once trail and will probably not do it again for a while, until I get the urge to beat myself up again.

Results? Riding my mountain bike after this ordeal was a bit strange. The handlebar felt very high, the front steering a bit vague, even though it was just above the saddle height. I have since lowered my handlebar a bit and it feels a lot better- closer to the stability of the 'cross bike but with the advantage of fat rubber and a suspended fork.

Logs are there for a reason- trail leads to the left